Mars Polar Lander Mission Status

February 11, 2000

Initial analysis of data taken on Tuesday by radio telescopes in the
Netherlands and Italy has shown no obvious signal from Mars Polar Lander,
but exhaustive review of the data is continuing with a final report due
next week.

Analysis of data taken at Stanford University in California is ongoing with
no signal detected so far. A telescope at Jodrell Bank in the United
Kingdom was not able to collect any data due to high winds at that facility.

"Our plan for the next week is to temporarily end active efforts to listen
for a signal," said Richard Cook, project manager for Mars Polar Lander at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We are evaluating
several scenarios for future listening attempts that could take place at
the end of this month." Mission managers are also reviewing information
about the Mars relay link between Mars Global Surveyor and the lander.

Mars Polar Lander is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's
Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Astronautics
Inc., Denver, Colo., is the agency's industrial partner for development and
operation of the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute
of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.